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| Yesterday, we entered the longest tunnel we’ve been through in our travels, the “Tunel da Encumeada” as we drove to Sao Vincente. Click here for a short video we found on YouTube, taken at 2x speed through this tunnel. It took us almost four minutes to drive through it. |
We both wish all of our family and friends in the US a happy and safe 4th of July. It’s great it fell on a Friday, so all of you still working have a nice long weekend. Enjoy the festivities and fireworks!
Here it is, folks, our itinerary from July 31, 2014, to April 11, 2016, all of which is booked and set for our arrival, except for a few flights and a few one-night hotel stays:
| Flight Madeira, Portugal to Paris, France |
0 | 7/31/2014 |
| Paris Hotel |
15 | 7/31/2014-8/16/2014 |
| Tunnel (Chunnel) Paris to London |
0 | 8/16/2014 |
| London Hotel |
15 | 8/16/2014 -8/31/2014 |
| London to Boston – Cruise | 14 | 8/31/2014 – 9/14/2014 |
| Hotel Boston | 3 | 9/14/2014 – 9/17/2014 |
| Flight Boston to Vancouver |
0 | 9/17/2014 |
| Hotel Vancouver |
6 | 9/17/2013 – 9/23/2014 |
| Vancouver to Honolulu – Cruise | 12 | 9/23/2014 – 10/5/2014 |
| Honolulu/Waikiki Rental |
11 | 10/5/2014 – 10/16/2014 |
| Maui Rental | 57 | 10/16/2014 – 12/1/2014 |
| 1st house Pahoe Hawaii Rental |
46 | 12/1/2014 – 1/14/2015 |
| 2nd house Pahoe Rental (family visiting) |
0 | 12/20/2014 – 1/3/2015 |
| Kauai Hawaii Rental |
120 | 1/15/2015 – 5/14/2015 |
| Honolulu/Waikiki Hotel |
9 | 5/15/2015 – 5/24/2015 |
| Honolulu to Sydney – Cruise |
18 | 5/24/2015 – 6/11/2015 |
| Trinity Beach, Australia |
89 | 6/11/2015 – 9/8/2015 |
| Fiji Rental -Savusavu Island |
89 | 9/8/2015 – 12/6/2015 |
| Fiji Rental #2 – Fiji Main Island |
29 | 12/6/2015 – 1/4/2016 |
| Sydney Hotel | 1 | 1/4/2016 – 1/5/2016 |
| Sydney to Aukland – Cruise |
14 | 1/5/2016 – 1/19/2016 |
| New Plymouth, New Zealand Alpaca Farm |
83 | 1/19/2016 – 4/11/2016 |
| Total Days Booked into Future |
620 | 7/31/2014 – 4/11/2016 |
Please note: Not all flights are posted here since we’ve yet to book them this far in advance. Flights cannot be booked more than 330 days in advance. In most cases, we don’t book flights any sooner than 90 days prior to travel. Also, in the next few days, we’ll be adding a few cruises, not shown here.
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| These sparse trees lined this hill. |
The time and effort we put into booking the last 10 months of this itinerary was more work than we’d ever expected. It wasn’t easy planning this leg of our ongoing journey with higher prices than we’ve ever seen and many properties booked well in advance.
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| The low lying clouds impeded the clarity of our photos, which often occurs. |
We’re satisfied with the end result and look forward to every step of the way (except for “flying days” which are always tiring and stressful). Beyond April 11, 2016? We don’t have a clue where we’ll go next other than the few above mentioned yet-to-be-booked cruises. A year ago, we didn’t know we’d be going to Australia. The decisions all come in time as a natural evolution.
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| The hillsides everywhere on the island are filled with beautiful gardens. |
We often look at the world map wondering where we’ll go after the final booking. We’ve yet to visit South America, the Orient, Antarctica, the countries in the former Soviet Union. At some point, we’ll cruise to Alaska and tour the US and Canada, most likely not for years to come.
In reality, we’re not trying to visit every part of the world. We’re traveling to places we find most interesting. We’ve yet to even count how many countries we’ve visited thus far. With over 200 countries in the world, we still have a long way to go. But, this isn’t a contest, a race, or an attempt to break some arbitrary record.
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| Stopping at an overlook, we spotted this unusual tree. |
This is just us, two senior citizens, in-love, enjoying time together in different environments, trying to live life to the fullest for as long as we can. We feel no pressure to do anything differently than we’re doing. If we screw up, it’s on us.
Yes, we miss our loved ones and yes, we’ll see them from time to time. But, staying in touch is easy these days, making them seem less far away. We hope and pray that they understand and accept the “why” to our lives.
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| We noticed a tour bus when we spotted this group of tourists crossing this footbridge. Most likely they are touring from a cruise ship that had arrived in Funchal, a popular port of call. |
We know being away may seem selfish to them. But, we hope we taught our children to live their dreams to the fullest and that also included us. We hope this message is also conveyed to our grandchildren. Make a dream…make it happen.
This morning, I awoke at 5:45 deciding to get up. It’s now 8:15 am and Tom’s still sleeping, a rarity for him. As soon as I bathed and dressed for the day, I came downstairs, turned on the hot water for my tea, immediately I opened the heavy glass door to the veranda, and stepped outside.
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| The tourists were heading down to this park. |
The sun had yet to come up and the reflection of the billowy clouds always present, cast a colorful image on the sea. As I stood there in awe of the beauty it dawned on me that in 27 days we’ll leave this island and in time it will become a distant memory.
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| Unusual vine-covered narrow trees. |
Yesterday, as we drove to the village of Sao Vincente taking photos, some of which are shown here today, with more shown tomorrow, we spoke of leaving this island and about how grateful we are that we’ve documented every step of our travels in words and photos.
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| We were disappointed that there was a cloud cover when we arrived in Sao Vincente. It had been sunny when we left Campanario. Rapidly changing weather is typical for this island. |
When and if the time comes, that we can no longer travel, we’ll always be able to look online to recall a date, a place, or an event; to laugh, to cry, and to know that through sheer determination and a bit of “safari luck” we somehow managed to live this dream.
Photo from one year ago today, July 4, 2013:
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| This is the only photo we posted a year ago today when it was a rainy day keeping us indoors in Boveglio Italy. This photo was taken in May 2013 (one month earlier) when we visited Petra, Jordan which we hadn’t posted at the time of posting Petra photos. But, we posted it last July 4, 2013, when we had no new photos available to post. For details of the story from one year ago today, please click here. |